


To Be Strong

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Childhood, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, F/M, Happy Ending, Past Hermione/Charlie, Single Parents, step parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22258711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: Life is like a roller coaster twists, turns, drops, and before you know it it's over.But, isn't there beauty in that?Hermione Granger didn't expect Draco Malfoy of all people to be there for her, but sometimes who you least expect is.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson/Harry Potter, Past Charlie Weasley/Hermione Granger
Comments: 10
Kudos: 58





	To Be Strong

Hermione Granger had grown to hate hospitals, the smell of them, the sounds of them. But, mostly she hated feeling that she and Rose were standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for something, anything to push them off the edge. Then they ended up right back at the hospital like a boomerang. No matter how far you threw them they would always end up back at the hospital.

She had long since given up on dreams of Rose being like every other child. That didn’t mean her daughter was less capable of things, no, in fact, her daughter was one of the strongest people she had ever known. Sometimes she wished her daughter’s father was here, but he had his own life now, and maybe that was for the best.

It was like any other night that her daughter was getting the management for the disease that had changed their life forever, but it was different. Sitting in the parent’s lounge of the children’s hospital was Draco Malfoy, of all people. Her former Hogwarts bully, the boy, now man who made it his goal to make her life miserable.

Hermione poured herself a cup of tea and tried to do her best to ignore the blonde. He did not, however, seem to agree with that. Draco said, “Hermione, why are you here?”

She held back a snarled answer of none of your business, Malfoy, and said, ”My daughter, Rose, she's sick.”

He said to her, ”Scorpius, my son, broke his leg in three places.He fell off his broom. They have to regrow it.”

Hermione wanted to be jealous of him, that his child was here due to something a few potions could fix. She knew she shouldn't feel that way. It was wrong. She should be happy other parents weren't going through what she was. She should be happy she wasn't like the other parents she use to spend these long nights with, their son was now dead.

Draco asked Hermione, ”What is wrong with Rose?”

She said, ”Want the long story or the short one?”

He said, ”Whichever one you want to tell me, Hermione, I have nowhere else to be. Astoria is long gone, left me when Scor was two years old, but the truth is you couldn't force her to stay overnight here. Neither my son nor I was worth her energy or her time.”

Hermione said, ”I know that feeling quite well, Rose’s father, Charlie Weasley? Soon as he found out I was pregnant he was gone like those dragons he loves so much. Rose has a condition that affects her connective tissue, it's the building block of our bodies. We are here because of her stomach, it's always her stomach. It doesn't empty as ours does.”

Draco said, ”That must be hard for you two.”

Hermione said, ”You don't know the half of it.”

He said, ”But, I am willing to listen to you if you want to tell me.”

Hermione sighed, why should she tell him of all people about what it feels like? Why would he even care? She thought long ago that Charlie cared. Back what seemed like a lifetime ago, back right after the war ended. After Ron died. After Harry and Pansy got together. After she had felt so utterly alone.

Some people called her a freak after she got with Charlie. He was Ron’s brother of all people, but the stark truth was she and Ron had only ever been friends. Charlie had come into her life like well a dragon, barreling through her walls. He was as smart as a whip, as cocky as a bullfighter, and as funny as someone could be.

When she found out she was pregnant it changed everything. Hermione needed someone who was more like herself. She did not need the guy who was going to come over to her flat drunk singing bloody show tunes, which he had done unfortunately many times. She needed someone who acted their age, not their shoe size.

And yet she did want to try to make it work, though after he heard that she was pregnant? He was back in Romania in a week. Molly blew a gasket when she found out.

No son of hers was going to behave like that. Hermione of all people was the one to calm her down. She reminded the woman Charlie was his own person. She didn't want him to stay with her just because of the baby. If he didn't want to help that was his choice, it was his choice to make, and his life to live. But, she was choosing to have this baby and raise it.

That was seven years ago, sometimes it seemed like a lifetime ago and others like it was yesterday. Rose was four when she was diagnosed. However, with her condition that was quite rare, not because it did not affect people as young as Rose, but because most people with it were dismissed that they were fine for sometimes up to a decade.

It was a small blessing to know at least. To be able to explain to her daughter what was wrong with her in words a child could understand. But, also the ability to put it into words for others, such as she was about to do for one Draco Malfoy.

Hermione muttered, ”take a seat and I will try and explain.”

Draco did so, Hermione tried her best to explain what led her to this place and this room. It might take all night but for some reason, a part of her had a feeling the blonde would stay to hear it all.

**************************

Hermione smiled over at Draco, she did not fall in love with him quickly, or even rather easily. Scorpius was out of the hospital the next morning that night they had reconnected. But, for some odd reason, Draco showed right back up when Scorpius was dropped off to primary school a few days later.

He claimed he had forgotten something. He had not. Draco then bought Rose a stuffed dog, that vaguely reminded her of Sirius, from the gift shop. He likely did not even really care about her or Rose, at the time she thought. But, he told her if she ever needed help or someone to talk to just fire call him or send him an owl.

Hermione had found that funny in a sense, but the truth is she did need help a few months down the road. When Harry couldn't take off of work, Pansy was sick, Molly was wrangling George’s daughter who had whatever Pansy had. But if Hermione missed this meeting she would lose her job, and she could not lose her job.

So, the night before her meeting and Rose’s appointment she owled Draco, asking him for help. He responded within the hour his eagle owl was knocking on her window.

Anytime Hermione needed him Draco was there. Slowly, but surely she started to let him in. It took months to ask him to stay after he watched Rose for her. It took a year to accept his offer to take her out to dinner. Ginny claimed harshly that she was leading the poor man on. But, her fear of fully letting him into her heart and having it broken again.

At their first dinner of starting whatever it was that they were starting, she told him, ”I haven't been trying to lead you on.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at her, ”I did not assume that you were, Hermione.”

She was rather shocked but still said, ”After Charlie, I didn't think I would be able to let someone else in, and then with Rose... I have to put her first. You of all people should know why.”

He nodded and said, ”Hermione, I am a parent as well. No matter what Scorpius will always and I mean always come first. How could I judge you about such a thing when I feel the exact same way. We will always be parents first and foremost no matter what. But, if you want to give this a try whatever this is, I want to give this a try.”

Hermione smiled at him and said, ”I do too.”

Draco grabbed onto her small hand and said, ”Then let's do this.”

That was three years ago now. They had been married for about a year. Rose’s health seemed to stabilize of sorts. She wouldn't get better per se, but she hadn't been in the hospital in months. So, as a celebration of sorts, they were taking the kids to something that Rose had been begging to go to. Rose wanted to go to Alton Towers. She wanted to ride roller coasters, she wanted to be like any other child. She wanted to be normal.

Scorpius looked up at Hermione his face filled with fear as he asked her, ”What’s a roller coaster?” She knew she should have explained this to him before they got here, forgetting that he had been raised fully within the wizarding world, unlike Rose.

She explained to her step-son as best as she could, ”It’s sort of the muggle version of a broom, Scor, and you know what? I will be right there with you. And if you don't want to go on something? You and I don't have to. Your dad can go on with Rose. Can't you Draco?”

Draco’s eyebrows shot straight into his white-blonde hair, but he smiled through his slight worry and said, ”Of course I will, but I would be shocked if Scorp doesn't want to go on all of them, he's the bravest kid I have ever met.”

Rose tapped her foot and gave him an odd look with her ice-blue eyes.

Draco corrected himself, ”bravest boy and you Rose are the bravest girl.”

Rose reached for his hand and her mother’s. Scorpius oddly enough, much to Hermione’s surprise he reached for her hand. He had started to accept her as his stepmother or maybe even his mum. They walked under the blue corkscrew as something that Hermione never believed she would have all those years ago after Rose was born, a family. She could not ask for more.

Sometimes she wished that Rose could be like any other child, but the truth was she could not make it so. She could, however, stand up for her. She could insist as she had done to those at Hogwarts that Rose was just as capable as any other child. That she deserved the same education as her stepbrother. That she deserved the chance at a normal life.

Draco right after they were married was able to come up with potions to help Rose, with the help of Severus Snape of all people. As much as the man did not like children, rarely allowing them to stay longer than a few minutes when they picked up her potions. But, when Hermione asked him why he was willing to help them?

All he could say was, ”no child deserves to suffer if someone is capable of helping them.” Then he shut the door of his shop and left her only with her thoughts. Hermione wondered what caused him to feel that way. The man grumbled at her quite a bit, always making it seem like he was doing her some great favor, but he seemed to care whether he outright showed it or not.

Hermione would tolerate the man around the holidays, both Draco and Narcissa he is invited, he was in a way a Malfoy in all but name. Sometimes she wondered if there was something going on between the man and her mother in law. Lucius having died a few years ago.

She set her ramblings aside as they walked to the ride had been begging to go on. That’s all that matters today making her children, both of her children, happy. They were a family and they always would be.


End file.
